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Introduction
Introduction
This book is a valuable record of sixteen years’ good work by an officer—a medical missionary—in charge of a medical mission station at Bannu, on the North-West Frontier of India. Although many accounts have been written descriptive of the wild tribes on this border, there was still plenty of room for Dr. Pennell’s modestly-related narrative. Previous writers— e.g. , Paget and Mason, Holdich, Oliver, Warburton, Elsmie, and many others—have dealt with the expeditions that have taken place from ti
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Preface
Preface
Chapter I The Afghan Character Pages Paradoxical—Ideas of honour—Blood-feuds—A sister’s revenge—The story of an outlaw—Taken by assault—A jirgah and its unexpected termination—Bluff—An attempt at kidnapping—Hospitality—A midnight meal—An ungrateful patient—A robber’s death—An Afghan dance—A village warfare—An officer’s escape—Cousins 17–30 Chapter II Afghan Traditions Israelitish origin of the Afghans—Jewish practices—Shepherd tradition of the Wazirs—Afridis and their saint—The zyarat
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Pronunciation of the Principal Oriental Words Used in this Book
Pronunciation of the Principal Oriental Words Used in this Book
Paradoxical—Ideas of honour—Blood-feuds—A sister’s revenge—The story of an outlaw—Taken by assault—A jirgah and its unexpected termination—Bluff—An attempt at kidnapping—Hospitality—A midnight meal—An ungrateful patient—A robber’s death—An Afghan dance—A village warfare—An officer’s escape—Cousins. The East is the country of contradictions, and the Afghan character is a strange medley of contradictory qualities, in which courage blends with stealth, the basest treachery with the most touching fi
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Among the Wild Tribes of the Afghan Frontier Chapter I The Afghan Character
Among the Wild Tribes of the Afghan Frontier Chapter I The Afghan Character
“Am I to have no justice at the hands of the Sarkar ?” passionately cried the sister in her despair. “Bring me witnesses, and I will convict,” was all the Judge could reply. “Very well; I must find my own way;” and the girl left the court to take no rest till her brother’s blood, which was crying to her from the ground, should be avenged. Shortly after this I was sitting in a classroom of the mission school teaching the boys. It was a Friday morning, when thousands of the hillmen come in to the
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Chapter II Afghan Traditions
Chapter II Afghan Traditions
A Ziarat or Shrine on the Takht-i-Suliman These burial-places of holy men are frequently located in almost inaccessible spots on mountains. Yet bed-ridden sufferers are hauled up to the precipitous sides in order that they may be benefited by contact with the holy place, as may be seen in the illustration. The frontier hills are often bare enough of fields or habitations, but one cannot go far without coming across some zyarat , or holy shrine, where the faithful worship and make their vows. It
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Chapter III Border Warriors
Chapter III Border Warriors
Thirty-four miles still remained in a direct line between us and our destination in Bannu, and before accomplishing this special arrangements had to be made with the tribes occupying it for our escort; for this tongue of country running up between Thal and Bannu was not British India, nor even an administrative area, but independent, and owned by the marauding Wazir tribe, who owed allegiance to neither Amir nor Viceroy. A couple of ruffianly-looking Wazirs arrived to escort us down. Their rifle
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Chapter IV A Frontier Valley
Chapter IV A Frontier Valley
Bannu Villagers Since the people have realized the peace resulting from English rule, and have begun to beat their swords into ploughshares, many of the hill tribes bordering the valley have taken every opportunity of settling in allotments in the valley, and enjoying the larger produce of its richer soil. These are the Mangals and Makbals above, and the Zaimukhts below, thus introducing a fresh element into the population. Over and above these any worker in the valley has to count on dealings w
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Chapter V The Christian’s Revenge
Chapter V The Christian’s Revenge
One day he was sitting in his dispensary seeing out-patients, when he heard the following conversation: Abdultalib . “The Sarkar has sent out agents to kill the Mussulmans by poisoning their drinking-water.” Balyamin . “ Mauzbillah! how do you know that?” A. “Mullah D. arrived last night, and, sitting in the chauk , he told how he had seen a man throwing pills into the well at Dabb village. He went after him, but as soon as the man saw him he ran away.” B. “What is to be done?” A. “First we must
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Chapter VI A Day in the Wards
Chapter VI A Day in the Wards
Passing on, we see a big swarthy Afghan, with fine martial features, in which suffering is gradually wearing out the old truculent air. He had gone armed with a friend one night to a village where there was a Militia guard. He maintains that they had merely gone to visit a friend, and had been delayed on the road till night overtook them; but to be out armed at night is of itself sufficient to raise a prima-facie case against a man on the border, and when the Militia soldiers challenged him, and
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Chapter VII From Morning to Night
Chapter VII From Morning to Night
The clock strikes eight, leaving just half an hour to visit the wards before out-patients begin. There is the abdominal section operation of yesterday to examine; the house-surgeon has come to report that the case of tubercular glands has had a hæmorrhage during the night. We are just hurrying over to see them, when up comes ’Alam Gul, the “Flower of the Earth,” to say his brother was coming down from the roof that morning, when his foot slipped on the ladder; he fell on his head, and was lying
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Chapter VIII The Itinerant Missionary
Chapter VIII The Itinerant Missionary
When travelling without camp equipment, we generally follow the Bible precept. We arrive at a village, and, “inquiring who within it is worthy, abide there till we depart thence.” This is usually some malik , or head man, who possesses that great institution of Afghanistan, a hujra , or guest-house. We are shown to this house, usually a mud building with a low door and a few small apertures in the walls in the place of windows, and a clean-swept earthen floor, which may be covered by a few palm-
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Chapter IX Afghan Mullahs
Chapter IX Afghan Mullahs
Then, in the mission hospital the question has frequently been raised by the Afghan patients as to whether it was lawful to say prayers in the clothes provided by the mission for the patients, even though these may have come direct from the washing; and we have been unable to persuade patients to put on clothes, however clean, which might possibly prevent them from saying their prayers until they have brought the case before some Mullah who was willing to give an ex cathedrâ pronouncement in our
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Chapter X A Tale of a Talib
Chapter X A Tale of a Talib
Finally, the Mullah, finding himself getting into a dilemma, obtained a release by the artifice with which we are very familiar by now. “It is time for afternoon prayers. I must hurry off, or my prayers will lapse by default,” he said; and, folding up his Quran in his shawl, hurried off. Finding their champion gone, another in the crowd called out: “All who are Mussalmans go away; he is no true Mussalman who stops to listen to these kafirs . There is no God but God, and Muhammad is the Prophet o
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Chapter XI School-Work
Chapter XI School-Work
Thus most of the Muhammadan boys in our school have already studied the Quran in a mosque, and many continue to receive religious teaching from their Mullah while studying in school. Thus they enter school at an older age than the Hindu students, who, except in family life, take little count of their religion, and slight their priests. The danger is obvious: faith in the old order is lost, and there is nothing but a conceited and bumptious materialism to take its place. Here it is that the missi
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Chapter XII An Afghan Football Team
Chapter XII An Afghan Football Team
The pegs, cut out of the wood of the date-palm, are fixed in the ground, three or four abreast, so that an equal number of horsemen may be able to compete simultaneously. The competitors, with their embroidered turbans and gay, many-coloured coats and shawls, form a brave show at one end of the course, as they pass the intervening time in showing off feats of horsemanship on their prancing chargers. Then, at a given word, three or four strike their heels into the horses’ sides—for they wear no s
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Chapter XIII ’Alam Gul’s Choice
Chapter XIII ’Alam Gul’s Choice
When they had finished the Quran and learnt the prayers and other essentials of the Muhammadan religion, ’Alam Gul was sent to the village school, while Abdul Majid began to make himself useful on the farm. He used to go out with his father’s buffaloes to take them to pasture, and sometimes he used to take his brother out for a ride on one of these ungainly animals. Then, when the harvest was ripening, a bed was fastened up at the top of four high poles, and he had to sit all day on this to prot
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Chapter XIV ’Alam Gul’s Choice (continued)
Chapter XIV ’Alam Gul’s Choice (continued)
“You call yourself a mission school, and here are your boys coming into my orchard and taking my fruit!” The next day the Principal had a roll-call of the school, and made a short speech to them, saying that he much regretted that some of the boys had brought a bad name on the school by stealing plums. He then ordered that the boys who had taken any should fall out and stand in a row in front. After much exchange of glances and hesitation, twenty or so of the boys fell out. These were ranged up
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Chapter XV Afghan Women
Chapter XV Afghan Women
When on the march the women are heavily loaded. They can often be seen not only carrying the children and household utensils, but driving the pack animals too, while the lordly men are content to carry only their rifle, or at most give a lift to one of the children. Yet it is not because the men are callous, but because it is the custom. Their fathers and forefathers did the same, and the women would be the first to rebuke a young wife who ventured to complain or object. Some of the women of the
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Chapter XVI The Story of a Convert
Chapter XVI The Story of a Convert
It was a delight to notice week by week the growth of the Spirit in the boy’s heart, but with all that there were many storms to brave and many seasons of darkness and unbelief, which threatened to crush the young seedling before it was yet able to weather the storm. The Afghan nature is hot-tempered and reckless, and he found it difficult to curb his spirit under the taunts of those around him. One afternoon, as I was sitting in my room, I heard shouts from outside—“O Daktar Sahib! O Daktar Sah
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Chapter XVII The Hindu Ascetics
Chapter XVII The Hindu Ascetics
The Muhammadan faqir is altogether different from the Hindu Sadhu in his motives, his ideals, his habits, his dress—in fact, in nearly everything; yet contact with the Hindu Sadhus has had a profound effect upon him, and their philosophies have coloured his religious ideas. The Hindus have, on their part too, not been unaffected by the influx of Muhammadans, bringing their new monotheistic ideas, and some of the Hindu orders appear to be attempts to graft the Muslim monotheism on to the mystical
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Chapter XVIII Sadhus and Faqirs
Chapter XVIII Sadhus and Faqirs
It is a pity that more missionaries have not devoted themselves to working among these people. They would need to be men of great devotion and self-abnegation, but there have been many such in other spheres. They would be repelled and disappointed by the callousness and fraud of the majority, but there are the gems to be sought out, and how much hard granite is the miner willing laboriously to crush when he is sure of finding nuggets of gold here and there! And among these Sadhus are men who, co
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Chapter XIX My Life as a Mendicant
Chapter XIX My Life as a Mendicant
We then wheeled comfortably along the interesting Grand Trunk Road, now to the north and now to the south of the railway-line. The crisp morning air of a Panjab winter has an exhilarating effect on the appetite, and we were only exceptional in that we had the appetite but no wherewithal in our wallets to satisfy the same. To tantalize us the more, it was the feast-day succeeding the great Muhammadan fast, and in all the villages the men were feasting, and the children, gaily dressed in their gal
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Chapter XX A Frontier Episode
Chapter XX A Frontier Episode
The sun has now disappeared behind the hill before them, and, like good Muhammadans, they make a brief halt for the evening prayers. The men cleanse their hands and feet with sand—for there is no water to be had here—and, selecting a smooth piece of ground, spread their shawl and, facing the Holy City, perform the requisite number of genuflections and calls on God. Suddenly there is the loud report of several guns; the bullets whistle through the midst of the party, and in a moment all is confus
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Chapter XXI Frontier Campaigning
Chapter XXI Frontier Campaigning
A native officer in the native levies of the Kurram Valley was converted through reading a Pashtu Testament which an officer gave him, and when I visited him in his home in Shlozan, in the Kurram Valley, I found that he was in the habit of reading the book to some of his neighbours who came together to listen; and although up to that time he had never met a missionary, he had made much progress in Christian experience and knowledge of the Bible. I had a pupil in the mission school who enlisted i
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Chapter XXII Chikki, The Freebooter
Chapter XXII Chikki, The Freebooter
This kind of life was more to the taste of Sarwar than the drudgery of mill-grinding, and before long he and Asghar had joined hands. Once, indeed, they were fairly caught, though they escaped the penalty of their misdeeds. They were on the prowl one dark night, when they saw a shrouded figure creeping along by a farm wall. They had scarcely hid behind a bush when the unknown man turned and came directly towards them. Thinking they had been observed, Asghar called out: “Who are you? Stand, or I
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Chapter XXIII Rough Diamonds
Chapter XXIII Rough Diamonds
I took him home, found that he was a farmer in a small way, possessed a few acres of land in a very criminal village right at the base of the frontier hills, could not read or write, and knew very little indeed of the Muhammadan religion beyond the prayers. Yet when I asked him, “Why do you wish to join our religion?” the only answer I could obtain was, “Because it is my wish.” “But you do not know anything about either religion.” “You can teach me; I will learn.” So importunate a pupil it was i
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Chapter XXIV Deductions
Chapter XXIV Deductions
We see, therefore, that the gathering in of converts is not the first or most important work of the missionary. His work is rather, first, to live Christ before the people of the country; secondly, to give them the teachings of Christ by giving them the Scriptures in their own tongue, and preaching and explaining the same to them. We often find in practice that when some Indian has been captivated by the Gospel, he is hurried on to baptism, and thereby cut off prematurely from his old stock and
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Chapter XXV A Forward Policy
Chapter XXV A Forward Policy
Colonel Wingate, a retired frontier officer, writes: 1 “I had gone for a stroll one day in the summer of 1895 with another officer for a short distance outside the military camp. Though we were wearing the uniform of officers, we were without arms, when suddenly we saw a party of natives approaching. They were travelling at a rapid rate, and as they drew near we observed that they were armed with bows and arrows and spears, each carrying a coloured blanket in a roll over the shoulder, their food
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B.
B.
Chádar = a cotton or woollen shawl, used as a wrap in the day and a sheet by night. Chapáti = flat cakes of unleavened bread, cooked over a tauwa , or flat piece of iron. Chárpár = “the four-legged,” the plain native wooden bedstead. Chauk = the room which the headman of a village sets apart for the use of the public. Village business and gossip is carried on here, and travellers accommodated. Chigah = an alarm, sounded by beating a drum in a village, for the arm-bearing population to come out i
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C.
C.
Dáktar = the native corruption of “doctor.” Dharmsála = a Hindu temple and rest-house for travellers, these two institutions being almost invariably combined. Dilaq = the patchwork cloak which is characteristic of the Muhammadan faqir. Dúm = the village barber and musician, these two offices being usually combined; he also does most of the minor surgery of the village. Dúmba = the fat-tailed Afghán sheep....
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D.
D.
Fatwá = a religious decree, promulgated by a court of Mullahs, or by one Mullah of authority. Feringi = the name universally accorded in Afghanistán to Europeans (the Franks). In British India it has a prejudicial signification, but not so in Afghanistán....
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F.
F.
Ghazá = a religious murder, when a Muhammadan fanatic kills a Christian or Hindu for the sake of religion. Gházi = the fanatic who commits ghazá . Grihasta = the second stage in the life of a devout Hindu, when he marries a wife, begets children, and carries on his profession or trade. Guru = a religious preceptor or guide among Hindus or Sikhs....
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G.
G.
Hákim = a ruler, an executive officer. Hakím = a native doctor, who practises on Western or Hippocratic lines. Halwa = a kind of sweet pudding, very popular with the Afgháns. Hazrat ’Esa = the Muhammadan appellation for our Lord Jesus Christ. Hujra = a guest-house, where travellers are accommodated in Afghán villages. It differs from chauk in that it is more specialized for the use of travellers, while the latter is more for the use of the village folk....
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H.
H.
’Íd = a Muhammadan feast-day. There are two chief feasts—the “’Id-el-fitr,” or day following the fast-month of Ramazán, and the “’Id-el-zoha” or “’Id-el-bakr,” which is the Feast of Sacrifice, in memory of Abraham’s would-be sacrifice of his son. Izzat = honour: a word constantly in an Afghán’s thoughts and conversation, but which even he is not always able to define....
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I.
I.
Jirgah = a council of the tribal elders. This may be appointed by the tribesmen themselves to settle some dispute, or in British India it may be appointed by the civil officer to help in deciding some judicial case....
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J.
J.
Káfir = an infidel. Strictly, only one who does not believe in God and the prophets, but loosely applied to all non-Muslims. Kalámulláh = the Word of God. Comprises, according to Muhammadan teaching, four books—the Law (Tauret), the Psalms (Zabúr), the Gospel (Injil), and the Qurán. Kalima = the Muhammadan creed: “There is no God but God, and Muhammad is the prophet of God.” The recitation of this is the recognized way of declaring one’s self a Muhammadan. Kanal = a measure of land—one-eighth of
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K.
K.
Lashkar = an army; often applied in Afghanistán to a small body of men going out from a tribe for warlike purposes, but they may be going for peaceful purposes—hence the English “lascar.”...
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L.
L.
Málik = in Afghanistán the headman of a village or tribe. Má’uzbílláh = a Muhammadan exclamation on hearing bad news or a calamity: “May God protect us!” Muharram = a yearly Muhammadan feast held on the 10th of the month of Muharram. Mullah = a Muhammadan preacher. Munshi = a clerk or preceptor....
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M.
M.
Pagari = the Eastern head-dress or turban. Patwári = a village bailiff, who keeps the accounts of the village lands. Patwarkhána = the office of the bailiff. Parda = the Eastern custom of secluding women from the public gaze. Puláo = a popular dish in Afghanistán, consisting of meat cooked with rice, with spices, nuts, raisins, and sweetenings....
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P.
P.
Qurbán = lit. , sacrifice; also used as an expression of devotion by an inferior to a superior. Qismet = fate, destiny; an ever-present idea in the Muhammadan mind....
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Q.
Q.
Rebáb = an Afghán stringed instrument, resembling a guitar....
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R.
R.
Sáhib = lit. , gentleman; the term of respect usually applied to Englishmen. Samádh = the posture assumed by an ascetic for contemplation of the Deity. There are a great variety of these, each possessing its own peculiar merit. Sangar = an entrenchment. In the mountain warfare of Afghanistán these are made of short walls of stones on the hillside. Sanyási = the fourth stage in the life of a devout Hindu, when he retires from the world, and gives himself up entirely to religious meditation. Sardá
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S.
S.
Shesham = a common tree on the frontier that yields an excellent hard wood for various articles of household use— Dalbergia sisso . Sowár = a horseman. Sura = a chapter of the Qurán. Tahsíl = the subdivision of an administrative district; the centre for the collection of the revenue. Tálib = a Muhammadan religious student; a pupil in a mosque. Tap-jap = a recitation of religious formulæ by a Hindu. Tauba = lit. , repentance; an exclamation denoting abhorrence or contrition....
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T.
T.
Ustád = a master or preceptor; a religious teacher (among Muhammadans)....
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U.
U.
Wiláyati = belonging to Europe; especially applied to merchandise of European origin....
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W.
W.
Yogsadhan = a system of contemplation, combined with religious exercises, whereby occult power is acquired. Yunáni = pertaining to Greece. This is the word usually applied to that system of native medicine which was derived from the Greeks; in Europe it is spoken of in connection with the name of Hippocrates, who formulated it. The other, or Hindu system, is the Vedic; those who practise the former are called hakíms , the latter baids ....
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Y.
Y.
Zamindár = a farmer, a landowner. Zyárat = a shrine; the grave of a holy man; a place of pilgrimage....
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Z.
Z.
Abdurrahman, and the charm which saved his life, 116 “Across our Indian Frontier,” by Colonel Wingate, 307 “Administered Areas,” 50 “Administrative Area,” The, 45 Afghan, Character of the, 17 ; revenge, 18 ; vanity, 21 ; bluff, 22 ; cruelty, 22 ; hospitality, 23 ; theft, 25 ; religion, 33 ; tribal jealousy, 60 Afghan public dances, 27 Afghan rule in the Kurram Valley, Remnants of, 58 Afghan village school, An, 170 Afghan women, 190 Afghans as road-makers, 202 Afghans, Origin of the, 31 Afridis,
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Corrections
Corrections
The following corrections have been applied to the text:...
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